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London when he became interested in marionettes. Coming to America in 1915, Sarg began his marionette shows to hundreds of audiences around the country. Thomas studied with Sarg in his studio at 54 West 9th Street, acquiring over 100 clock hours of training.
     Traditional class room instructions were augmented with puppetry in that they served as an additional learning tool.  During the 1930s and 40s an educational movement spread across the city to form children's puppet theaters and clubs in segregated Washington.  A type of puppetry that involves any inanimate figure manipulated by a human being, the marionette requires strings, and is operated from above.  Originally the term was applied to any kind of French (for "little Mary", the figure in Nativity scenes) or Italian puppet.
     Thomas created her marionettes from balsa (a lightweight wood from a tropical American tree) and costumes that she designed and crafted.  Lois Mailou Jones, born 1905, a newly arrived artist in the Washington area, who taught design and watercolor painting at Howard University, 1930-1977, became a lifetime acquaintance of Thomas.  On occasions, Jones would assist in painting the faces of Thomas's marionettes.46  Their relationship would continue throughout Thomas's lifetime, especially during the decade of the 1940s when Jones and Celine Tabary (1912-1992?), an artist friend from France, established "The Little Paris Studio."

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